February 22, 2014

On the Road: A Home Away from Home in Cambridge

During my two years as an ELC, I have been lucky enough to
spend the majority of my time with our Iota Tau chapter at Harvard
University.If you had told me two years
ago, that I would come to love and care about a chapter 3,000 miles across the
country as much as I love my own chapter, Beta Pi at USC, I probably would have
laughed, but you would have been 100% correct.

I have been so lucky to experience so many firsts with this
young chapter and to be a part of the hard work that has gone into making it
what it is today.From getting their
first members to their first formal to installation and initiation, I have been
there for all of their major milestones, but by far my favorite experience with
this incredible chapter was their very first formal recruitment.I fully believe that formal recruitment is a
rite of passage for every chapter and every member.Many of my own favorite memories from my
collegiate experience were from polish week and formal recruitment, and I have
been eagerly anticipating the day the Harvard women would get to have many of
those same experiences.During polish week, they all shared why they had joined
Alpha Phi and more importantly, why they loved it.They chanted, they practiced, and they got
really, really excited about their new members.It was a huge bonding experience, and it was so rewarding to see all of
the love for and pride in Alpha Phi that they all had.Most of them never went through formal
recruitment so it was their first time experiencing the craziness, not just
their first time as Alpha Phis.They
pulled together, worked ridiculously hard and did amazingly well.Through it all, I watched their sisterhood
continue to grow.They chanted until
they lost their voices, they stayed late at The Phi gushing about their rush
crushes and they truly became a team working together to get the best new
members possible.And in the end, they
made quota and have 39 extraordinary new members as a result of their hard
work.I was very excited, but more than
that, I loved seeing their excitement about their new members and how ready
they were to welcome these women into their chapter.

The semester is flying by, and I am already feeling
nostalgic for my time as an ELC and my time here at Harvard.These women have become my family and have
made Cambridge my home away from home.I
love each and every one of the 90 women that have become my little sisters, and
even though I will be a little bit farther away, I know I will always be their
#1 fan and their obnoxious cheerleader. I am so incredibly proud to call these
women Alpha Phis, and I could not be any prouder of this chapter.They have accomplished so much in their short
time as a chapter, and I cannot wait to see what is in store for their future.